The present invention relates to an automated records management system. Such an automatic system has utility, for example, in a hospital based patient record keeping system. Patient record keeping systems are used for maintaining a wide variety of separate, often interrelated, types of medical records concerning patients.
Hand written patient record keeping systems have evolved through many years of careful refinement and enhancement into systems which maintain a detailed manual record of medical information concerning each patient. To meet the needs of different hospital entities (such as doctors, nurses, pharmacy, accounting, laboratory, etc.) a manual record keeping system would require that one piece of information be entered into multiple records.
In a typical manual patient record keeping system a patient chart, usually in the form of a notebook, is maintained at the nursing station for each patient. The notebook is divided into a plurality of individual tabbed sections, such as Physicians Orders, Kardex, Nursing Care Plan, Nursing Assessment, and Laboratory.
Each of the above sections is further subdivided into a number of forms. The forms are those which are appropriate to the individual patient and/or such patient's physician. For example, within the Laboratory section there may appear forms for chemistry, hematology, blood gas, and microbiology.
In addition, a "flowsheet" chart is usually kept at the patient's bedside. On the "flowsheet" chart there are individual areas for medication records, vital signs, intake/output, laboratory results, and other categories which are dependent upon the patient's affliction, such as intravenous (IV) drips.
The flowsheets are often a type of spreadsheet arranged by a progression of time versus a particular parameter. Each of the time/parameter intersections form a cell.
One way of replacing the manual charting system is with electronic databases such as described in the patents and applications referenced in the preceding Related Inventions section. Here a visual display is provided in much the same configuration as present manual charts. Each display provides a time/variable spread sheet consisting of a plurality of data cells.
In this type of electronic database, a cell in a flowsheet may have a form or report associated with it which expands on the information in the cell. This form may be comprised of various attributes and processing rules obtained from one or more object instances of one or more object classes.
An object instance is the instantiation of an object class. An object class is similar to a type (as used in programming languages) in that it defines a structure. The information for these flowsheet cells and the underlying forms, comes from a database containing various patient records. Examples of forms and records are found in copending patent applications "A Method of Forming a Spreadsheet Display" and "Spreadsheet Cell having Multiple Data Fields". During the patient's stay, the information in the database relating to that patient will grow and be physically distributed about the data storage device. Accessing and displaying this information becomes more difficult as the amount of information grows.
Additionally, in a critical care environment, it is a necessity to obtain and display the information in as little time as possible to the health care provider.
An important objective in obtaining a fast turn around time from request to display is the organization and storage of the information in the database, as well as the method used to retrieve the data.
The functions provided by the present invention may also be considered a database management system which is a software application whose function is to interface between a database and any applications/processes requesting access to the database. In general, a database management system provides for the organization of, access to, and control of a database.
A database is a collection of logically organized data items. Generally, a database is organized into tables (or pages) which may contain one or more records (or rows). The records are comprised of one or more fields which contain the data.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an electronic data storage interface which overcomes the above deficiencies and provides the desired advantages.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an electronic data storage interface which directs the storage and retrieval of data from a database in an improved, efficient manner.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic data storage interface which physically organizes the stored data in a manner similar to the logical organization of the data, such as the manner in which it will be displayed.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic data storage interface which utilizes an object class hierarchy in accessing the stored data. Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic data storage interface which utilizes a numerical equivalent index to provide faster access to the data.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic data storage interface which organizes the data according to the density, or quantity, of data.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic data storage interface which utilizes an object class hierarchy schema to define the attributes and processing rules of individual instances.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an electronic data storage interface which permits application programs to access data using programming language structures.
These and other objects and advantages are achieved in accordance with a preferred embodiment of the invention described below.